The Trial Practice Tips Blog

An Easy Tip to Make Your Writing Look More Professional

Want to instantly make your writing look more professional? The secret can be found in Bryan Garner's A Dictionary of Modern American Usage in an entry titled "phrasal adjectives"--

When a phrase functions as an adjective--an increasingly frequent phenomenon in late-20th-century English--the phrase should ordinarily be hyphenated. Most professional writers know this; most nonprofessionals don't.

The primary reason for hyphens is that they prevent miscues and make reading easier and faster. Following are some examples culled from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times:

advance-free loan
bikini-clad blondes
birds-and-bees metaphor
blue-jeans-and-T-shirt crowd
credit-card application
draft-choice compensation

There's more in Garner's book, but this snippet gives you all you need to know. You can find more examples in almost any print publication. By following the phrasal-adjective rule in your own writing, you'll immediately give it a more professional, polished appearance.

Publication Note: Originally published on 11/21/95, but just as true today . . .

A Shockingly Great Christmas Gift for Lawyers

It's my book How to Feed a Lawyer (and Other Irreverent Observations from the Legal Underground).

From the Amazon reviews--

I titled this "Hodgman for the Legal Set", because I think fans of one would enjoy the other ... It is our world, but at an oblique angle, where there is a wealth of strangeness and even sadness behind the expensive suits and crushing workloads and sacrificed personal lives.

I think that oblique angle allows Schaeffer to get into what is important to him without being pedantic: the nobility of the profession in theory and in practice. He has scorn for those who abuse the law, who treat it as a game, who use litigation tactics as a way to avoid the truth. It is never heavy-handed, but there is an anger there. ...

That's a long way for a book that is, at its heart, wildly funny. The reader is drawn through verbal mazes one step behind a winking guide. For a book that ostensibly teaches you what you need to know about dealing with lawyers, Schaeffer proves that the practice is as weird, unpredictable, and as idiosyncratic as the human race.

    --Cairo Brian

Evan Schaeffer is a unique lawyer for three reasons. He's extremely successful (rare in any profession) yet he also has a sense of humor (rare among lawyers) and is down to earth (even more rare).

In How to Feed a Lawyer, Evan offers insights and commentary about the legal system and through humorous essays, also shares what it's like being a lawyer. ... Evan's book is well-written, insightful, and worth reading.

--Crime & Federalism

Loved this book! Great fun to read and excellent writing by a Midwest lawyer who loves to poke fun at himself and his profession, while educating & enlightening his readers -- who are most likely -- though don't have to be -- fairly informed on the legal profession.

--Sarah Bernard**

The book isn't for lawyers who take themselves or their profession too seriously. We don't want them anyway!

The book is for BigLaw associates and partners; young lawyers, small-firm lawyers and solos; bitter lawyers and wannabe lawyers; most (but not all) of the judges I have known; lovers of H.L. Mencken, Mark Twain, or James Thurber; wannabe lawyers; and bright people of all types.

Happy reading!

**Sarah Bernard is my sister. Take this one with a grain of salt.

Trial Tech: Using an iPad at Trial

From Lawyerist: "Trial Presentation with an iPad and Apple TV," by Kevin Morris--

Using an iPad for trial presentation is not only more efficient and economical than traditional presentations, it is also drop-dead easy to set up. Each and every piece of evidence is just a tap away, which means no more lugging around blown-up foam board exhibits or fiddling with unreliable overhead projectors.

As Morris writes, "As for setting up and presenting on an Apple TV, this article will teach you everything you need to know." The article covers equipment, set-up, and a comparison of three apps for trial presentation: TrialPad, ExhibitView 5, and Trial Director.

Six Steps to Better Depositions

My article "Six Steps to Better Depositions" appeared at Lawyerist last week--

My first depositions were often frightening experiences. Like most new lawyers, I plunged ahead and tried to do my best, but I rarely felt at ease.

As my discomfort gave way to confidence, I developed techniques I began to use at every deposition. What follow are guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules. But I consider these techniques so useful I continue to use them today.

For the six techniques, see the full post. Meanwhile, you'll find much more about depositions at Trial Practice Tips in the deposition category.

Learning to Be Comfortable in a Courtroom

The best trial lawyers move around a courtroom with such ease that you'd think they were trying the case in their own living rooms. When you are up against such lawyers, you'll be surprised by how disarming it can be. Sometimes their mistakes just won't seem to matter. In fact, you'll wonder, was that a mistake at all?

While this sort of confidence comes only with experience, there are some shortcuts you can take to being comfortable in a courtroom. Try these six:

• Meet with the Judge Every judge has special trial procedures and quirky personal rules that are best learned before you violate them. The more you know about the judge's personal trial procedures ahead of time, the more comfortable you will feel at trial. Question the judge at a pretrial conference or arrange a meeting that's convenient for opposing counsel. Put the question as directly as possible: "Your Honor, do you have any special trial procedures that I should know about?"  Don't worry about sounding like a novice; you won't.
• Talk to Other Lawyers Asking the judge directly is good, but so is asking other lawyers. Find out about as much as you can about the trial judge by asking lawyers with firsthand knowledge. Does the judge require more formality or less? Will he impose limitations on your ability to move around the courtroom? How is his demeanor? What sorts of things will make him angry?
• Learn the Layout of the Courtroom If you are trying a case in an unfamiliar courtroom, spend some time there the week before. Consider where you'll sit, where you'll put your files, and how you'll get from one place to another with a jury box full of people who will all seem to be watching your every move. If you have an extensive computer set-up, conduct a dress rehearsal with your staff. You will be glad later that you did.
• Get to Know the Courtroom Personnel I suppose some lawyers don't take the time to learn the names of every member of the judge's staff before the trial begins, but this is not only risky, it's rude. Try to do more than learn their names; engage in some small talk and get to know a little about them too. Not only will you appreciate their smiles after a difficult day of trial, but they might be a big help when it comes to courtroom logistics. During a trial, you can't have too many friends.
• Be Yourself Sure you have seen some great lawyers who you would like to imitate at trial, but imitation just won't work. You're a lawyer, not an actor. Focus on the lawyering, try not to be too self-conscious, and don't be hard on yourself when you mess up. The showmanship may come naturally, but if not it won't matter: you'll be acting like yourself, which will make everyone happier (and much more comfortable) in the end.
• Overprepare There's no better way to make sure you will be relaxed at trial than to overprepare in the weeks before it starts. You won't be able to prevent the heart-stopping surprises that complicate every trial, but you will be more likely to keep your cool when they come.

Publication Note: Originally published 12/30/05. Republished today with minor edits.

Improve Your Legal Writing

My three articles on legal writing, all originally published in the Illinois Bar Journal, continue to get a steady stream of Google-fueled web traffic.

I've reposted these three articles, which are favorites of mine, on my personal website. Follow the links to--

"Five Steps Towards Persuasive Writing,"

"Improve Your Legal Writing with Five Simple Rules," and

"First Drafts Made Easy."

Hundreds of other legal-writing tips can be found here at Trial Practice Tips in the "Legal Writing" category.

Good Depostion Questions

An article I did about good deposition questions appears at Lawyerist today: "Anatomy of a Good Deposition Question"--

It is easy to overlook what defines a good deposition question.

This topic isn’t merely for beginners. Even if you walk into a deposition with a solid plan, your plan can quickly change question by question. It’s at this micro-level — the way you ask each individual question — where many deposition errors are made.

To understand how bad questions can ruin your depositions, consider the anatomy of a good deposition question.

For more, see the full post. I've also covered the topic on Trial Practice Tips, making some of the same points but in a different way: "The Anatomy of the Perfect Deposition Question," a post from 2008.

You'll find much more about depositions at Trial Practice Tips in the deposition category.

Advanced Deposition Techniques: the Podcasts

I'm revisiting the three podcasts I posted at my other blog, Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground, on the topic of advanced deposition techniques. Here are the links:

The Legal Underground Podcast Episode #49: Advanced Deposition Techniques, Part 1 -- Five Tips for Asserting Control at Depositions

The Legal Underground Podcast Episode #50: Advanced Deposition Techniques, Part 2--Four Ways to Use Psychology at Your Next Deposition

The Legal Underground Podcast Episode #51: Advanced Deposition Techniques, Part 3 -- Miscellaneous Tips for Expert Depositions

My other podcasts can be found at Legal Underground in the podcasting category.

15 Ways to Ruin a Deposition

In this series of posts, I'll dig into the archives of The Trial Practice Tips Weblog and highlight some of my prior posts about depositions. Although you can see all of these post in this weblog's deposition category, I thought I'd try to reorganize some of them in a new way.

I'll begin with the first five ways a lawyer can ruin a deposition. I've been guilty of all of them at one time or another--

1. Deposing someone who doesn't need to be deposed at all. Unnecessary depositions are a waste of time and money. See this post: "Not Every Witness Need to Be Deposed."

Continue reading "15 Ways to Ruin a Deposition" in the archives.

Depositions: A Cheat Sheet

Lawyers who want a quick guide to depositions should take a look at the "Deposition Cheat Sheet," by Christian Denmon of Denmon Law. 

Denmon's article deals with both basic and advanced topics. Here's a tip for dealing with unresponsive witnesses, which Denmon calls the "body turn" -- 

When the Witness rambles uncontrollable, slowly turn your body away from the witness. Don’t stop the witness from rambling, just turn your body. The effect is amazing.

I think I might try it myself!